Longitudinal assessment of psychological distress and its determinants in a sample of firefighters based in Montreal, Canada.

Introduction: Firefighters face elevated risks of common mental health issues, with distress rates estimated at around 30%, surpassing those of many other occupational groups. While exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs) is a well-recognized risk factor, existing research acknowledges the need for a broader perspective encompassing multidimensional factors within the realm of occupational stress. Furthermore, this body of evidence heavily relies on cross-sectional studies.

Longitudinal assessment and determinants of short-term and longer-term psychological distress in a sample of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec, Canada.

Introduction: Previous research has demonstrated the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency on the wellbeing of healthcare workers. However, few research contributions reported a longitudinal evaluation of psychological distress and examined determinants of its duration and course over time. The present study aims to explore the impact of the pandemic emergency on HCWs mental health by adopting a longitudinal design and assessing mental health as combination of overlapping clinical symptoms (post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety).

Assessing Changes in Anxiety, Empowerment, Stigma and Wellbeing in Participants Attending an Online-Based Recovery College in Quebec During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Pre-Experimental Study.

The present study aims to evaluate the effect of an online Recovery College (RC) program implemented in Quebec (Canada) during the COVID-19 pandemic. From October 2020 to June 2021, 27 training groups were conducted with a total of 362 attendees. Outcome was evaluated using a single group repeated measure design, assessing participants prior the training (T0), after the training (T1) and at follow up (T2).

Older adults' subjective experiences of the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown in Italy: A qualitative study.

Objective: To evaluate the subjective experience of the COVID-19 outbreak in healthy older adults and develop a model of the older population's psychological adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A qualitative grounded theory approach was taken to the study design and analysis, using semi-structured interviews to collect data from 19 community-active Italian older people by telephone during the first wave of COVID-19 (May 2020).

Results: The theory emerging from the study conceptualized the COVID-19 subjective experience in older people as an adjustment process to the disruption of habits, social contacts, and routines that prompted a meaning-making process to face this adverse experience.

Workplace Factors, Burnout Signs, and Clinical Mental Health Symptoms among Mental Health Workers in Lombardy and Quebec during the First Wave of COVID-19.

Several research contributions have depicted the impact of the pandemic environment on healthcare and social care personnel. Even though the high prevalence of burnout depression and anxiety in healthcare settings before COVID-19 has been well documented in the research, the recent increase in psychological distress and mental health issues in healthcare and mental health workers should be attributed to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the present study is to develop, evaluate, and compare a model of COVID-19 workplace stressors between two different territories, the Italian region of Lombardy and the Canadian province of Quebec.

The Evolution of the Role of Imaging in the Diagnosis of Craniosynostosis: A Narrative Review.

Craniosynostosis, the premature closure of cranial sutures, is one of the principal causes of pediatric skull deformities. It can cause aesthetic, neurological, acoustic, ophthalmological complications up to real emergencies. Craniosynostosis are primarily diagnosed with accurate physical examination, skull measurement and observation of the deformity, but the radiological support currently plays an increasingly important role in confirming a more precise diagnosis and better planning for therapeutic interventions.

Closeness to friends explains age differences in positive emotional experience during the lockdown period of COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Studies on age differences in emotional states during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that older adults experienced greater emotional wellbeing compared to younger adults. We hypothesized these age differences to be related to the perception of closeness to family/friends or the engagement in daily activities during the pandemic.

Aim: To investigate age differences in positive and negative emotional experiences and whether the perception of closeness to family/friends and the engagement in daily activities during pandemic explained such age-related differences.

Risk Perception in a Real-World Situation (COVID-19): How It Changes From 18 to 87 Years Old.

Studies on age-related differences in risk perception in a real-world situation, such as the recent COVID-19 outbreak, showed that the risk perception of getting COVID-19 tends to decrease as age increases. This finding raised the question on what factors could explain risk perception in older adults. The present study examined age-related differences in risk perception in the early stages of COVID-19 lockdown, analyzing variables that can explain the differences in perception of risk at different ages.

The Early Impact of the Covid-19 Emergency on Mental Health Workers: A Survey in Lombardy, Italy.

Lombardy was the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak in Italy, and in March 2020 the rapid escalation in cases prompted the Italian Government to decree a mandatory lockdown and to introduce safety practices in mental health services. The general objective of the study is to evaluate the early impact of the Covid-19 emergency and quarantine on the well-being and work practices of mental health service personnel and professionals. Data were collected through an online survey of workers and professionals working with people with mental health problems in Lombardy in several outpatient and inpatient services.

Determinants of mental health professionals' attitudes towards recovery: A review.

Objective: The attitudes of mental health professionals towards consumers' recovery are far more pessimistic than what is needed for the recovery-orientation to truly permeate systems of care. It has become pressing to depict determinants for these attitudes and how they evolve during professionalization. This, in the hopes to adjust not only medical education, but also ongoing training of professionals.

Housing Orientations and Needs of Above-Average Length of Stay Hospitalized Psychiatric Patients.

A small number of severely and persistently mentally ill in-patients awaiting residential or long-stay facilities represent an obstacle to the efficient utilization of acute care beds. These facilities are costly and currently reputed to be contrary to recovery principles. In 2013, all acute psychiatric care wards in Montreal identified 194 in-patients who could be discharged to residential or long-term nursing care facilities.

Experiences of Mental Healthcare Reported by Individuals Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder: An Italian Qualitative Study.

This qualitative study explores experiences of mental health care by nine Italian users with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. The findings from semi-structured interviews carried by professional researchers highlighted the following themes: mixed feelings about the diagnosis; lack of access to psychological interventions despite preferences of users; positive view of peer support, job as a safe haven, traumatic experiences of compulsory hospital admissions; need for crisis interventions as alternative to hospital admission. Most users' views look in accordance with evidence-based recommendations seldom implemented in practice.

Do people with bipolar disorders have access to psychosocial treatments? A survey in Italy.

Background: Several guidelines consider psychosocial treatments an essential component of clinical management of bipolar disorders in addition to drug therapy. However, to what extent such interventions are available in everyday practice to the average patient attending mental health services is not known.

Aims: This study aims to investigate access of people with bipolar disorders to psychosocial treatments in a community-based care system.

Quality assessment of mental health care by people with severe mental disorders: a participatory research project.

This study assessed the perceived quality of care by consumers with severe mental disorders. A questionnaire investigating service quality was developed by a consumer focus group and filled by 204 consumers. In five areas the negative evaluations exceeded or closely approximated the positive ones: choice of professionals, waiting times, information about illness and medications.

Giant leiomyoma of the retzius space: a case report.

Extrauterine leiomyoma is a very rare clinical condition; we report a case of leiomyoma of the Retzius space in a 49-year-old women who suffered for two years from bladder voiding symptoms characterized by dysuria, feeling of incomplete emptying, and pelvic pain. Clinical evaluation and abdominal and transvaginal ultrasound suggested the presence of a voluminous (about 10 cm in diameter) fibromyoma of the anterior uterus surface. The urodynamic evaluation demonstrated the presence of bladder outlet obstruction (voiding pressure greater than 20 cm H2O and maximum flow rate less than 12 mL/s) with a postvoiding urine residual equal to 80 mL; moreover, the presence of cystocele and urethral stricture was ruled out performing clinical evaluation, cystography, and cystourethroscopy.

Formal and informal help-seeking for mental health problems. A survey of preferences of italian students.

Help-seeking preferences for mental health are a crucial aspect to design strategies to support adolescents in an emotionally delicate life phase. Informal help-seeking is usually preferred but little was published about preferences in different cultures, and it is not clear whether informal and formal help are mutually exclusive or whether they are part of the same overall propensity to help-seeking. In a survey of 710 students in Milan, Italy, help-seeking propensity measured through an Italian version of the General Help-Seeking Questionnaire was high, similar in males and females (mean total score 3.

Measuring clinical change in routine mental health care: differences between first time and longer term service users.

Objective: The aims were to assess the feasibility of routinely collecting outcome data in everyday mental health services across Italy and to evaluate clinical change in a cohort of patients stratified by illness duration.

Method: A prevalence sample of patients attending nine Italian community mental health services (CMHS) was assessed over one year with the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS). The patients were classified on the basis of the duration of their contact with services.